U.S. Under-17 WNT Defeats China Under-17s 5-1 in the Second of Two Friendlies in Carson

NewsAug 25, 2012

CARSON, Calif. (Aug. 25, 2012)–The U.S. Under-17 Women’s National Team defeated the China U-17 Women’s National Team 5-1 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., in the second of two friendlies between the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup-bound nations as midfielder Toni Payne and forward Darian Jenkins scored two goals each while forward Summer Green capped off the match with a score of her own.

The USA had struggled a bit in the first of the two exhibitions on Aug. 22, falling behind 1-0 to the Chinese in the first half before scoring twice in the second to take the win. The young Americans had no such issues in the second match, scoring twice within the first eight minutes including a goal from Jenkins less than two minutes after the opening whistle.

The opening goal came off a corner from Green who served into the area at the six-yard box where Jenkins was first to the ball during a goal mouth scramble and shot low into the right corner for the 1-0 lead.

Six minutes later, Green set up Payne, playing a through ball into the left side of the penalty box. Payne took a few touches to cut inside and poked the ball past the goalkeeper into the lower the right corner from six yards out.

The USA made it 3-0 in the 27th minute on a nice dribble from Payne, who beat the last defender and then side-stepped the goalkeeper before rolling the ball into the right corner of the net.

The U.S. U-17s put the game out of reach in the 75th minute when Emily Bruder played a ball over the top of the Chinese defense. Jenkins got on the end of it and beat the last defender on a breakaway down the center of the field, shooting home from just inside the 18-yard box low into the left corner.

The Chinese pulled a goal back in the 81st minute through Zhang Chen as she ran onto a ball that was slipped through the middle of the U.S. defense and finished from 18 yards, but the USA answered right back just one minute later. Outside back Brittany Basinger played a lofty ball in from the left sideline to Green, who settled it inside the six-yard box and blasted her shot low into the left corner.

The two goals for Payne upped her international total to six goals in 13 matches while Jenkins registered the second and third goals of her U-17 career in just seven matches. Green’s goal upped her team-leading total to 17 goals in 21 career U-17 contents. Her two assists also gave her a team-leading nine during 2012.

This was the final international match for the U.S. team before heading to Cyprus in mid-September for a pre-World Cup training camp. The USA will travel from Cyprus to Azerbaijan, where the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be staged from Sept. 22-Oct. 13. The Republic of Azerbaijan, which is slightly smaller than the state of Maine and has a population of almost nine million, is located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe and is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. Five of the tournament's six venues are in Baku with one stadium located about 175 miles south in Lankaran.

The U.S. plays its first Group B match at Lankaran Stadium in Lankaran, opening its tournament on Sept. 22 against France (1 p.m. local / 4 a.m. ET) before facing Gambia on Sept. 25 (5 p.m. local / 8 a.m. ET) at Dalga Arena in Baku. The USA will finish group play on Sept. 29 against Korea DPR (5 p.m. local / 8 a.m. ET) at Bayil Stadium in Baku. Lankaran Stadium features a grass field, but both Dalga Arena and Bayil Stadium have artificial turf surfaces.